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Record Number of Americans Currently Hospitalized with COVID; Soon Biden Will Meet with Small Business Owners Amid Pandemic Plan; Georgia Official Says to Trump, Stop Inspiring Death Threats; Trump Threatens to Veto Military Bill to Punish Tech Giants; Ravens-Steelers Game Finally Underway after Three Delays; Two Republican Congress Members Test Positive for COVID. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired December 02, 2020 - 15:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[15:30:00]

DR. DAVID ANDES, CHIEF, DIVISION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN HOSPITAL: I can't imagine having to ration medical care, it just seems unfathomable. Right now the hospital has been clever in trying to set up new units to take care of the COVID patients. We started with one at the beginning in the spring and now we're up to six.

But once our hospital is full, you know, the state has set up an overflow field hospital, but right now that's only available for care of the really less sick patients, so not patients that need an intensive care unit, which as you noted, is one in four of our patients right now.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Having to get creative, some adults are being treated in the children's hospital, and I know, Dr. Andes, this isn't just about physical space. I had read a note that you said the doctors are going outside their specialties to treat COVID patients. Can you give me an example?

ANDES: Sure. So while space is important, the medical work force is extremely strained, and people -- it's been amazing. There's been a lot of volunteerism, people are signing up for extra shifts and working outside their typical work roles, so clinic doctors are now taking care of patients in the hospital setting, patients are being cared for by other specialists outside of hospital medicine, from endocrinologists to gastroenterologists, they're now staffing the wards, doing extra work.

BALDWIN: All hands on deck is what I'm hearing. And that these doctors are offering up anything that they can. The CDC Director today warned that the next three months will be the most difficult time in this nation's public health history. How worried are you that it's only going to get worse?

ANDES: I would agree with that sentiment. Unfortunately, we haven't seen any statistics that suggest that things are about to get better. If anything, I think we worry that the curve will continue to move in an upward trajectory, especially with the extensive travel we saw over the last week and worried that we'll see in the coming weeks.

BALDWIN: Yet you have a number of people who, you know, dismiss CDC guidelines, went out and about for Thanksgiving, may go out and about for the holidays. You know, people are over this. There's this new phrase "COVID fatigue," Dr. Andes. What's your message to those people?

ANDES: Well, I understand that that fatigue is a real thing, and we're excited about the news of a vaccine, but until we get wide distribution of that vaccine, we have to rely on what has been demonstrated to work, and that is, as everyone knows, social distancing, masking and hand hygiene.

BALDWIN: Dr. David Andes, thank you so much.

ANDES: Thank you. Take care.

BALDWIN: Thank you.

Any moment now, president-elect Joe Biden is set to meet with a small group of business owners as so many of them are either having to close their doors or just struggling to stay afloat. That's next.

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[15:35:00]

BALDWIN: As the pandemic continues to ravage the U.S. economy, President-elect Joe Biden is set to meet with small business owners any minute now just to learn how bad this crisis is hitting their bottom line. This virtual roundtable comes on the heels of Biden's official rollout of his economic team, including his nomination of Janet Yellen as Treasury Secretary.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny is falling all of this for us from Wilmington, and you know we've certainly heard about "build back better" but do we know exactly how Biden plans to combat this economic crisis come January 20th?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, they have obviously many ideas to do that. First and foremost is to show that he understands what is going on in America and quite literally to feel their pain.

That is something different there is a different sense of urgency among president-elect Joe Biden's language in transition than there is on Capitol Hill, frankly in both parties. So he is going to be meeting in just a few moments with front line workers as well as small business owners, really, to get the stories that he already knows the answers to, how they are struggling.

So look, it depends what is awaiting him when he takes office on January 20th. He is urging Congress right now in both parties to pass some kind of bill in a lame duck session, some type of support for these struggling Americans. Now if they do not, the problems are much larger when the Biden team comes in. But even if they do, they are planning one of the first things out of

the gate we're told is a big economic stimulus plan that will cover, certainly help with unemployment, evictions, hunger, all these general things, but really what he's calling for, Brooke, is bigger structural changes in the economy.

Now it's an open question how successful they'll be at doing that, particularly if Republicans remain in control of the Senate. But he's talked about raising the minimum wage. He's talked about really balancing out this income inequality that happened a long time before the pandemic.

[15:40:00]

So in some respects this is like 2009 when they were coming into office the first time, he and president-elect Barack Obama. There was a great recession. The difference now, there's not a bipartisan agreement to do something before they take office. So they really are hoping that something happens now in the final weeks of this legislative session. But regardless of that, this is all going to be waiting for him when he takes office on January 20th -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: It will, indeed, but to your point I know so many Americans are just saying to Congress, get it together and get something done in terms of stimulus first.

ZELENY: Sure.

BALDWIN: Jeff Zeleny, thank you, in Wilmington.

President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris join Jake Tapper for their first joint interview since winning the White House. Do not miss this. It's a CNN special event tomorrow night at 9:00 Eastern only here on CNN.

Despite President Trump definitively losing this election, he is still not letting go. Telling a group gathered at a White House party last night, quote, we are trying to do another four years, otherwise I'll see you in four years.

Regardless of his 2024 ambitions, the President's unrelenting attacks on our democracy coupled with chronic claims of voter fraud are having an undeniable impact. Just listen to one of Georgia's top election officials who, by the way, is a Republican.

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GABRIEL STERLING (R) GEORGIA VOTING SYSTEMS MANAGER: I don't have all the best words to do this because I'm angry. The straw that broke the camel's back today is, again, this 20-year-old contractor for a voting system company just trying to do his job, just there. In fact, I talked to Dominion today and I said, he's one of the better ones they've got. His family is getting harassed now. There's a noose out there with his name on it. It's not right.

I can't begin to explain the level of anger I have right now over this. And every American, every Georgian, Republican and Democrat alike should have that same level of anger.

Mr. President, it looks like you likely lost the state of Georgia. We're investigating, there's always a possibility I get it and you have the rights to go through the courts. What you don't have the ability to do and you need to step up and say this is stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence. Someone is going to get hurt, someone is going to get shot, someone is going to get killed. And it's not right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Joining me now, CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein. And Ron, I mean you could feel his anger, right, as Gabriel Sterling was speaking there in Georgia. There is a battle between Republicans who want the President's supporters to back them and those, like you just heard, who are concerned about this type of rhetoric. Who wins here?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, look, well, I mean so far, the Georgia official is in the minority, right? I mean you are seeing an incredible silence and acquiescence among the Republican leadership particularly in Congress but even most of the governors as the President spreads these poisonous fantasies with real-world consequences.

I mean we're talking 75, 80 percent of Republicans in polls now believe without evidence that the election has been stolen. We're seeing death threats against secretaries of state in Arizona, in Georgia, other election officials around the country.

I mean that speech yesterday, Brooke, was sort of the modern equivalent of the Joseph Welch, at long last, sir, have you no decency to Joe McCarthy at the Army-McCarthy hearings in 1954.

But as I wrote yesterday on the CNN website, we are seeing even less pushback from Republicans in Congress today to Trump's baseless claims than we saw among Republicans to McCarthy in the early 1950s. So this is more likely to go on than not.

BALDWIN: And after the breaking news yesterday about Bill Barr, himself saying, right, not a shred of widespread voter fraud, you would think that those Republicans who have been zipped would speak up.

Let's talk about this President, this current President, and his aspirations. We are learning that he is probably going to announce for 2024, but his potential rivals tell "Axios"," and this is what they're reporting, that they assume Trump's power will fade post White House giving them hope that they can still run.

Twofold, Ron. One, do you think his power will fade, and two, if you are a Republican eyeing 2024, what are you thinking?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes, first let's be clear. Even if he does announce that he's running in 2024 doesn't mean that that verdict will hold up for four years. So I think it's still an open question whether he does in the end.

I certainly think he's going to at least dangle the possibility because it's his way of increasing leverage over the party. And Republicans, Brooke, by acquiescing in these baseless claims of voter fraud are increasing his leverage in the party. It's going to be hard to make the argument that Trump led the Republican Party into a dead end if he has convinced 80 percent of voters that he actually won, and the only reason he's not taking the oath again, is because the election was stolen from him.

[15:45:00]

So in many ways, I have felt that by going along with these claims, they are making it more likely that they remain under his thumb and under his influence in the coming years.

I think if I was a Republican looking at 2024, I would be planning on the assumption that in the end he may not do it. You know, he's obviously got legal exposure potentially in New York state. A lot can happen between now and then. But they have created a situation by their complicity and their cowering before him in these dangerous and corrosive fantasies in which he has more leverage in the party, not less.

BALDWIN: And you said in the coming years. We'll see if "Axios" reporting holds, that it fades.

In other news, President Trump is threatening to veto the Defense Spending Bill which gives much needed funding to our troops, all because he has this beef with places like Twitter and Facebook. President Trump wants to repeal Section 230 of the bill which gives tech companies immunity from content that's published on their platforms. What's going on here, Ron?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, look, I mean this is a debate that is likely going to, you know, get stronger, intensify once Joe Biden becomes President, because certainly a lot of Democrats feel that Facebook, kind of Mark Zuckerberg in particular, put its chips on the side of Trump, assuming that he would win and kind of bending over backwards in his decision to avoid sparking his ire.

So I do think there's going to be a legitimate debate about this but the idea of kind of holding up the Defense Act on this is something that I think is going to have kind of broad bipartisan resistance, and this is an issue that is likely going

to be resolved in the Biden presidency.

BALDWIN: Ron Brownstein, great to have you on. Thank you so much.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you.

BALDWIN: And a programming note for all of you on the runoff election that will decide who controls the U.S. Senate, Senator Kelly Loeffler and Reverend Raphael Warnock debate each other live here on CNN, DEBATE NIGHT IN GEORGIA, that is Sunday night at 7:00 Eastern. After three delays, the COVID ravaged Baltimore Ravens are playing the Pittsburg Steelers today in a rare Wednesday NFL match-up. That is next.

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[15:50:00]

BALDWIN: We talked about this over Thanksgiving. It was rescheduled not once , not twice but three times. And now nearly a week after the Ravens and Steelers were originally supposed to face off the game is finally under way.

CNN's Andy Scholes is with me now. And Andy, how is the Ravens' growing COVID reserve list going to impact the game today?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Well, Brooke, I mean it's not helping the team, I mean that's for sure. I mean they have 17 players on that COVID-19 reserve list right now. And that includes, you know, some of their best players, reigning MVP their quarterback Lamar Jackson, their two top running backs, other key players on the team.

You know. they had to elevate ten players from the practice squad just to be able to have enough players really to play in this game. The Steelers also impacted by the coronavirus, they placed pro bowl center Maurkice Pouncey on the COVID-19 reserve list just hours before this game.

Now the NFL they held a health and safety call a few hours ago and they defended the decision to play this game today. Dr. Allen Sills, the NFL's Chief Medical Officer, he said that all of the Ravens were tested today. All of those tests came back negative so there is no active infection on the Ravens' sidelines today.

He also said that the Ravens outbreak, it occurred before the league went into the intensive COVID-19 protocols, those intensive protocols, you know, requiring now all players to wear a mask during walk- throughs when they're on the sidelines and things like that.

And you know, Dr. Sills also asked, you know, when it comes to the playoffs, they obviously, can't have an outbreak happen in a playoff scenario in a playoff game. He said, would the NFL have all of the players vaccinated before the playoffs? Well, Dr. Sills he said the NFL is not going to have any preferential treatment when it comes to vaccines.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ALLEN SILLS, THE NFL'S CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER (via phone): And you never want to do anything that hinders the public health effort and, you know, I think it is our understanding that health care workers and front line workers are going to be first in line for those vaccines and it's important to us that that happen and that we are not seen as cutting the line.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SCHOLES: Now cases, Brooke, obviously are rising around the country and that's cases within the NFL too. They released the latest testing results from the window of November 22nd to the 28th. In that window, 33 players tested positive, 53 staff members. That was the largest numbers the NFL has seen thus far.

But Roger Goodell on that call I mentioned before, he said that, you know, as long as the league stays disciplined and that they keep to these protocols, he's confident they're going to be able to finish the season. He also added, they're not going to go to any kind of bubble scenario like the NBA did for its regular season, the playoffs. That's kind of off the table. He did consider maybe that teams in their local markets might go into a semi-bubble but in terms of everybody going to one place, that's not going to happen.

BALDWIN: Got it. Interesting, so he's confident they will be able to finish the season. I've just been wondering today. It's such a physical sport, you know. If the NFL can make it through this season because of all these, you know, guys getting sick. Andy Scholes, thank you very much for all of that.

Two more members of Congress have tested positive for COVID-19. They are Republican Representatives Ted Budd of North Carolina and Austin Scott of Georgia. Congressman Budd says he has mild symptoms. Congressman Scott did not share his condition but thanked supporters for prayers and well wishes. A total of 33 House members and 11 Senators have either tested positive or been presumed positive and we wish them well.

The United Kingdom just became the first country to approve a COVID vaccine. And CNN's Frederik Pleitgen spoke exclusively with the CEO of BioNTech about their plans to distribute the vaccine.

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[15:55:00]

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Frederik Pleitgen in Mainz in Germany. As Pfizer and German lab BioNTech have received approval for their COVID-19 vaccine in the United Kingdom. In an exclusive interview, the CEO of BioNTech Ugur Sahin told me he believes this could be the beginning of the end of the coronavirus pandemic.

He also says that he believes that first doses could be brought to the U.K. very quickly and the companies will get regulatory approval from the FDA for an Emergency Use Authorization very soon as well.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Fred, thank you very much.

A bold prediction from a top Warp Speed adviser today. He says 100 million Americans could be vaccinated by February. That is next.

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